Adventurers, scientists, artists, workers, and visionaries - these are the men and women you will encounter in the short fiction of Kim Stanley Robinson. In settings ranging from the sunken ruins of Venice to the upper reaches of the Himalayas to the terraformed surface of Mars itself, and through themes of environmental sustainability, social justice, personal responsibility, sports, adventure, and fun, Robinson's protagonists explore a world which stands in sharp contrast to many of the traditional locales and mores of science fiction, presenting instead a world in which Utopia rests within our grasp. From Kim Stanley Robinson, award-winning author of the Mars Trilogy, the Three Californias Trilogy, the Science in the Capital series, The Martians, and The Years of Rice and Salt, comes The Best of Kim Stanley Robinson. These twenty-two stories, including the Nebula Award-winning "The Blind Geometer," and World Fantasy Award winner "Black Air" represent The Best of Kim Stanley Robinson.
From Booklist
This valuable introduction to the versatile author’s short fiction starts with “Venice Drowned” and goers on through such other classics as “Black Air,” “The Lucky Strike,” “Escape from Kahmandu,” and “Prometheus Unbound, At Last.” Perhaps less well-known will be “Remaking History,” “Zurich,” “Muir on Shasta,” and “The Tympanist of the Berlin Philharmonic, 1942.” Robinson has provided short notes on all the stories, none of them long discussions on himself. No such are needed, as Robinson’s gifts (supported by extensive travel and knowledge of history) speak for themselves. The only caveat is that larger collections may well have most of these pieces already, but even they may find it prudent to offer this bonus to beginning readers of Robinson. --Roland Green